---
title: While she is weeping "like a river," some old women of the mendicant… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: While she is weeping "like a river," some old women of the mendicant-pilgrim class come to her rescue, telling her to make four _Kukolki_, or small puppets, and to place one of them in each corner of her room. Who acts: heroine, old women. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of M
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 13, sentence 49

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While she is weeping "like a river," some old women of the mendicant-pilgrim class come to her rescue, telling her to make four \_Kukolki\_, or small puppets, and to place one of them in each corner of her room.

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**Who acts:** heroine, old women · **What happens:** weep, come, tell, make, rescue · **To what, where:** small puppets, corner, heroine, four · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heroine, old women), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg22373:31:49
# text = While she is weeping "like a river," some old women of the mendicant-pilgrim class come to her rescue, telling her to make four _Kukolki_, or small puppets, and to place one of them in each corner of her room.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
16	mendicant	mendicant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	pilgrim	pilgrim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	class	class	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
20	come	come	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	rescue	rescue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
29	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	obj	_	_
30	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	Kukolki	Kukolki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	puppets	puppet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
41	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	40	flat	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nmod	_	_
44	in	in	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	46	det	_	_
46	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **weep** | present · progressive | heroine |  |  |  |  | like a river | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | infinitive | some old women of the pilgrim class | small puppets |  | each corner of heroine's room |  | to heroine's rescue; to place | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme to rescue=Initial\_Location to place=Destination |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | some old women of the pilgrim class *not said here* |  | heroine |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **make** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | some old women of the pilgrim class *not said here* | four |  |  |  | Kukolki *obl* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset four=Product |
| 5 | **rescue** |  | heroine |  |  |  |  |  | nom rescue «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Project Gutenberg book 22373 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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